TOURISTS who fly into Townsville will soon be receiving a much warmer welcome to the city.

Townsville City Council and Paradise Outdoor Advertising are erecting the new “Welcome to Townsville” sign on John Melton Black Road.

The road will be closed to traffic until noon today as workers install the sign, but the advertising material won’t be installed until Friday.

Mayor Jenny Hill said the new billboard would provide a warm welcome for passengers arriving at the airport.

“It is important that visitors to Townsville feel welcome and the new sign will definitely provide an impressive welcome to city,” she said. “I am looking forward to seeing the finished product on Friday.”

The original sign was destroyed during Cyclone Yasi, and there has been no welcome message posted on the main road out of the airport since the disaster struck the city in February 2011.

A deal between the two organisations was struck back in September 2012, with the new welcome sign being installed for $15,000, but the council agreed to forgo any advertising revenue on the other side, which will be used by Paradise for up to 15 years.

As part of the deal, no political advertising will be allowed on the sign.

Paradise Outdoor Advertising chief executive Mitch James said the new sign was the result of a strong partnership between the company and the council.

“We are pleased to partner with council to construct a welcome sign for the city and I am sure it will be appreciated by visitors and locals,” he said.

The new sign from the airport comes after the welcome sign on the southern approach to the city was removed mid last year, although it will be replaced by a 10m crocodile to welcome visitors to the city as part of the new visitor information centre to be built at Billabong Sanctuary.

Cr Les Walker, who has previously criticised the entrance into the city from the airport, said the addition of new signage will go a long way to improving first impressions.

“Getting the ‘Welcome to Townsville’ sign installed and ready to go will be absolutely critical in terms of improving that first impression of the city for visitors who fly here,” Cr Walker said.

Cr Walker said improvements to the area needed to occur before major events scheduled for later in the year.

“We have a lot of things coming up in Townsville,” he said.

“The North Queensland games are happening (in April) and that will bring a lot of people into the city.

“When we have these events that bring people into the city we need to make sure we do everything we can to leave them with a good impression so they want to come back.

“And first impressions count so it’s good the sign is finally going up.”

Comments on this story

It is great Cr Les Walker is out there trying to improve the city image. Not a peep from the other councillors.

Travis Posted at 10:00 PM March 05, 2014

Disaster in Townsville.. that's not a surprise really.

Anna of Townsville Posted at 11:57 AM March 05, 2014

Welcome to our new welcome sign. Could our local state MP's please fund something to hide the Cleveland Centre which is growing like topsy and not a good look at the entrance to our city. It should not be left to TCC and ratepayers to pay for beautification to hide this government eyesore.

THEIR days on the court may be over but former Townsville Fire players Aneka Davis, Cherie Gallagher and Julia Duroux will be cheering from the sideline when the team takes on Bendigo in the grand final.